332 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great institutes free daily bread rations in Constantinople
- 1096 Crusaders massacre Jews of Worms
- 1268 The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch
- 1291 After 100 years of Crusader control, the last Crusader stronghold of Acre is reconquered and destroyed by the Mamluks under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil
- 1302 Bruges Matins; the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by local Flemish militia
- 1565 Turkish Armada arrives to begin the Great Siege of Malta, aiming to establish the island as their gateway for the conquest of Europe
1593 Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe
- 1596 Dutch explorer Willem Barents sets off from Amsterdam on his third expedition to try to find a Northwest passage through the Arctic
1619 Dutch jurist and scholar Hugo Grotius sentenced to life in prison in Loevestein Castle in the Netherlands (later escapes in a book chest)
- 1631 English colony Massachusetts Bay grants Puritan voting right
1631 John Winthrop is elected 1st Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
1642 Ville-Marie (later Montreal), Canada, founded by the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal led by Paul de Chomedey
- 1652 Rhode Island enacts the first law declaring slavery illegal
- 1703 Dutch and English troops occupy Cologne
- 1756 Great Britain declares war on France at the start of the Seven Years' War
- 1765 Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec
- 1783 First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States
- 1794 Battle of Tourcoing; French Republican army defeats a Habsburg coalition bear Lille, France, during War of the First Coalition
- 1803 "Peace of Amiens" between French Republic and Great Britain ends as Britain declares war on France, due to France's imperialist policies in the West Indies, Italy, and Switzerland
1804 Napoléon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate
- 1811 Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay lead by Jose Artigas
1812 John Bellingham, a Liverpool merchant who assassinated British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval on May 11, is hung for the crime at the Old Bailey in London
1816 Famous dandy Beau Brummell flees to France to escape a gambling debt. He never returns, dying in France in 1840.
- 1830 Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, a lawn mower. Saturdays are destroyed forever
- 1843 United Free Church of Scotland forms
- 1846 US troops attack Rio Grande occupying Matamoros, during the Mexican–American War
- 1848 Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany
- 1851 Amsterdam-Nieuwediep telegraph connection linked
- 1852 Massachusetts rules all school-age children must attend school
1860 US Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president
- 1861 Battle of Sewall's Point, Virginia: First Union offensive action against Confederate forces
- 1861 Friedrich Hebbel's play "Kriemhildes Rache" premieres in Weimar
1863 US General Ulysses S. Grant begins siege on Vicksburg, Mississippi; after 47 days of battle siege, Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton’s troops surrender [1]
1871 Warren Wagon Train raid: Native American Comanche and Kiowa warriors attack a corn train led by Henry Warren near Graham, Texas, killing 7 waggoners. William T. Sherman pursues and captures 3 leaders, Satanta (White Bear), Satank (Sitting Bear) and Addo-eta ( Big Tree).
- 1887 Emmanuel Chabrier's opera "Le roi malgré lui" (King, in spite of himself) premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris; after 3 performances the theatre burns down
1889 Jules Massenet's opera "Esclarmonde" premieres in Paris
1896 Khodynka Tragedy: A stampeding crowd on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the coronation festivities for Russian Tsar Nicholas II, causes the deaths of an estimated 1,300 people
- 1896 US Supreme court affirms legitimacy of racial separation (Plessy v Ferguson), a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal"
1897 Herbert Henry Dow founds Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan
- 1897 Irish Music Festival first held in Dublin
- 1897 New York Giants third baseman Bill Joyce becomes last player in baseball history to hit 4 triples in a game as Giants beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-5 at Exposition Park
1897 Paul Dukas' symphonic scherzo "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" (used in Disney's Fantasia film) premieres, based on poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1917 First units of the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General John J. Pershing, is ordered to France
- 1917 US Congress passes Selective Service Act, authorizing the federal government to raise a national army for the American entry into World War I through compulsory enlistment
- 1918 Dutch Indian Volksraad installed in Batavia
- 1918 TNT explosion in chemical factory in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, kills 200 people
- 1922 Dutch 2nd Chamber agrees to 48 hour work week (was 45 hrs)
- 1926 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanishes in Venice, California She shows up a month later saying she's been kidnapped
- 1927 Bath School Disaster: Andrew Kehoe blows up Bath Consolidated School killing 38 children, 2 teachers at Bath, Michigan
- 1927 Grauman's Chinese Theatre opens in Hollywood, California
- 1927 One of the largest-known fast-moving landslides forms Lower Slide Lake in Gros Ventre, Wyoming
- 1927 Ritz Hotel opens in Boston, Massachusetts
1927 Sid Grauman's Chinese Theatre opens in Hollywood, California, with a stage production followed by the world premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's silent film epic "King of Kings"
- 1929 MLB record 50 runs for a doubleheader: Brooklyn Robins beat Philadelphia Phillies, 20-16 in first game, Phillies win 8-6 in nightcap, at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1933 Around 5,000 forced deportees in the Soviet Union arrive on Nazino Island; within thirteen weeks most of them will be dead due to disease, cannibalism and violence
- 1934 Trans-Word Airlines (TWA) begins commercial service
- 1940 WWII: German troops conquer Antwerp, Belgium
- 1941 Italian army in Ethiopia under general Aosta surrenders to Britain
- 1942 NYC ends night baseball games for rest of WW II
- 1943 Allied bombers attack Pantelleria, an Italian island 100 km southwest of Sicily
- 1944 Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans
- 1944 Polish 2nd Army corps captures convent of Monte Cassino, Italy
- 1945 MLB Detroit Tigers & Philadelphia A's both have 7 straight games postponed due to rain
- 1947 MLB Philadelphia A's catcher Warren Rosar catches his 147th game without an error
- 1948 Arab Legion captures fort on Mt Scopus during Arab-Israeli war
- 1948 Saudi Arabia joins invasion of Israel
- 1948 The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking
- 1949 Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America incorporates
- 1950 MLB St. Louis Cardinals baseman Tommy Glaviano makes 3 consecutive errors on grounders
- 1951 US General Collins predicts use of atom bomb in Korea
1952 Professor Willard Libby says England's prehistoric monument of Stonehenge dates back to 1848 BC
1955 Queen Juliana opens E55 fair in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 1956 Hungarian party leader Matyas Rákosi enforces his own policy
1956 Mickey Mantle hits HR from both sides of plate for record 3rd time
- 1956 Queen Juliana opens Rembrandt fairs in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 1958 11th Cannes Film Festival: "The Cranes Are Flying" directed by Mikhail Kalatozov wins the Palme d'Or
- 1959 "Castin' My Spell" by The Johnny Otis Show hits #52
- 1959 "Judy" by David Seville hits #86
- 1959 "Russian Band Stand" by Spencer & Spencer hits #91
- 1960 Eillen Fulton begins playing Lisa on As the World Turns (for almost 30 yrs)
1960 Jean Genet's play "Le Balcon" (The Balcony) premieres in Paris
- 1964 US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
1965 Gene Roddenberry suggests 16 names for Star Trek Captain; they include Kirk
- 1965 WTAF TV channel 29 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1967 Silver hits a record $1.60 an ounce in London
- 1967 Tennessee Governor Ellington approves repeal of the Butler Act (or "Monkey Law") - prohibiting the teaching of evolution, upheld in 1925 Scopes Trial
- 1968 Frank Howard ties AL record with HR in his 6th consecutive game his 10 home runs in the most in 6 games
- 1969 Apollo 10 launches from Kennedy Space Center and later transmits the 1st color pictures of Earth from space
- 1970 Beatles' last released LP, "Let It Be", released in US
- 1971 Bulgarian constitution comes into effect
1971 Stanley Cup Final, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: Henri Richard scores twice as Montreal Canadiens beat Chicago Black Hawks for a 4-3 series victory
1971 US President Richard Nixon rejects 60 demands of Congressional Black Caucus
- 1971 Vampire rapist Wayne Boden's last victim found in Calgary, Alberta
- 1972 "Me and The Chimp" an American TV sitcom last airs on CBS in the US
- 1972 American basketball player John Sebastian makes 63 consecutive free throws while blindfolded
- 1972 American pop rock band Looking Glass release their single "Brandy"
1973 Soviet party leader Leonid Brezhnev visits West Germany
- 1973 WIBC Bowling Queens won by Dotty Fothergill
- 1974 India becomes the sixth nation to detonate an atomic bomb
- 1974 Nigeria announces 55 percent government participation in all oil concessions
1974 Novelty song "The Streak" by Ray Stevens hits #1
1977 Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister of Israel
1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state triggers the largest landslide in history, killing 57 people and causing over $1 billion in damage
- 1980 Fernando Belaunde Terry elected president of Peru
- 1980 Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations, calling for democratic reforms
- 1980 People's Republic of China launches 1st intercontinental rocket
- 1982 Tigers outfielder Larry Herndon is 14th to hit 4 consecutive HRs
1982 Unification Church founder Rev Sun Myung Moon convicted of tax evasion
1985 Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok" single (written by Tim Rice, and Abba's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus) hits #3 in US
- 1986 Chung Kwung Ying does 2,750 "atomic" hand-stand push-ups
- 1986 David Goch finishes swimming 55,682 miles in a 25-yd pool
- 1986 South African army occupies Botswana, Zimbabwe & Zambia
- 1988 In just Oakland's 39th of the season, pitcher Dave Stewart breaks record with his 12th balk en route to 16
- 1990 "Laugh-In" comedienne arrested at JFK airport in New York on an 11-year-old drug warrant
1990 Chicago Cubs Ryne Sandberg ends second baseman record 123 errorless game streak
- 1990 East Germany and West Germany sign a monetary union treaty, effective July 1
1990 Edmonton right wing Jari Kurri sets a record for scoring in a Stanley Cup Finals game with 3 goals and 2 assists in a 7-2 win at Boston Garden
- 1990 TV movie "Return To Green Acres" airs
- 1991 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
- 1991 Republic of Somaliland declares independence from Somalia
- 1991 USSR launches two cosmonauts to Mir space station
- 1992 45th Cannes Film Festival: "Den goda viljan" directed by Bille August wins the Palme d'Or
- 1992 US Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs
1993 Danish people vote in favor of ratifying the Maastricht Treaty
- 1993 Italian police arrest Mafia boss Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola
- 1994 Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip
- 1994 Tropical Butterfly Garden at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio opens
- 1995 WIBC Bowling Queens won by Sandra Postma
- 1996 WIBC Bowling Queens won by Lisa Wagner
- 1997 "King David" opens at New Amsterdam Theater NYC
- 1997 50th Cannes Film Festival: "Taste of Cherry" directed by Abbas Kiarostami and "Unagi" (The Eel) directed by Shohei Imamura jointly awarded the Palme d'Or
- 1998 United States v. Microsoft: Department of Justice and 20 states file an antitrust case against Microsoft
- 1999 "Millennium" 3rd studio album by the Backstreet Boys is released - one of the best-selling albums of all time with over 30 million copies sold
- 2001 101-year-old Harold Stilson becomes oldest golfer to record a hole-in-one when he aces the 108-yard, par-3, 16th hole at Deerfield CC, FL
2001 DreamWorks Pictures "Shrek", starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz in voice-over roles, debuts
- 2001 Saudi Arabia selects the eight foreign companies to take part in its "Gas Initiative," three core venture gas projects that have an anticipated worth of $25 billion
- 2002 Micky Ward beats Arturo Gatti by majority decision in a junior welterweight boxing bout in Uncasville, Connecticut; 'The Ring' Fight of the Year; first fight in their legendary trilogy
- 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson becomes 16th pitcher to throw a perfect game (2-0 vs Atlanta)
- 2006 The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country
2008 "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Harrison Ford, and produced by George Lucas' Lucasfilms, premiers at the Cannes Film Festival
- 2009 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending the Sri Lankan Civil War and almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides
- 2010 Police officer James Crooker is asked to leave the Red and Black Café in Portland, Oregon after co-owner John Langley claimed Crooker's uniformed presence made him uncomfortable
- 2013 RC Toulonnais defeat ASM Clermont Auvergne to win the rugby Heineken Cup final
- 2014 Swiss voters reject a $25 per hour minimum wage
- 2014 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Shoal Creek G&CC: Kenny Perry wins his third of 4 Champions Tour majors by 1 stroke from Mark Calcavecchia
2018 All of Chile's 34 Roman Catholic bishops offer their resignation to Pope Francis in wake of child sex scandal
- 2018 Mexican Damojh airlines flight crashes near Havana airport, Cuba, killing 110 with just 3 survivors
- 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting; 17 year-old shooter kills 10 and injures 10 in Santa Fe, Texas
2019 Australian federal elections won by Scott Morrison's coalition government in a surprise result
2020 US President Donald Trump confirms he is taking controversial drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19
- 2020 WHO member states agree to set up an inquiry into the global response to the pandemic, including looking at the WHO itself
- 2021 India records the highest recorded daily COVID-19 death toll to date in the world with 4,529 deaths
- 2021 MLB Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull no-hits Seattle Mariners, 5-0 at Comerica Park, Detroit
2023 Final Indiana Jones film "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" premieres at the Cannes Film Festival, starring Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, directed by James Mangold and executive produced by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas
- 2023 Harrison Ford is presented with an honorary Palme d'Or lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival in France
- 2024 706 people called Kyle gather in Kyle, Texas, attempting to break the record for a gathering of people with the same name (record is 2,325 Ivans 2017) [1]
- 2024 Bayer Leverkusen become the first Bundesliga team in history to finish a German league season unbeaten after a 2-1 win at home against Augsburg
- 2025 Centrist mayor of Bucharest and former mathematics professor Nicusor Dan wins the presidential election in Romania over hard-right nationalist and pro-Russian candidate George Simion
- 2025 English rock band "The Who" announce the resignation of Zak Starkey, their drummer since 1996; Starkey claims that he did not quit, but was fired - later revising that he instead "had been retired"
2025 Papal inauguration mass of Pope Leo XIV is held at Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City
- 2025 Russia launches its largest attack on Ukraine since the beginning of the war with 273 drones [1]
- 👁 Writer Ray Setterfield at the site in Yosemite Valley, California, where President Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir 'talked forest good'
Theodore Roosevelt, the Cowboy President
May 17, 1903 - 👁 Isti Mirant Stella translates as ‘These men wonder at the star.’ Fingers point to Halley's Comet as King Harold looks worried. Bayeux Tapestry fragment, 1066
The Quiet Passing of Halley’s Comet
May 18, 1910 - 👁 Ogden Nash focused upon what he called “my field – the minor idiocies of humanity.”
Ogden Nash, The Perceptive Poet
May 19, 1971 - 👁 Audrey Hepburn transformed from flower girl to My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady's Special Day
May 20, 1956
